Tag: communication

The social media site Twitter has announced its first profit since the founding of the company in 2005. The last quarter of 2017 saw the company making $ 91 million in profits. After the announcement, Twitter sharesrose more than 20%.

Twitter made the profits from an increase in ad sales and from expansion outside the US. Overall revenue has been increasing constantly and is now at $ 731 million, due to a better targetting of ads. While revenue in the US fell, it increased strongly in Japan and other countries.

Currently, Twitter is reported to have over 330 million active users. It has been an important media outlet for celebrities and politicians, especially in the United States, for a long time. However, surprisingly, up to now, the company has failed to make any profits. Business experts have criticized Twitter for failing to grow over the longer term and step out of the shadows of its bigger brother, Facebook.

The company has announced its plans for 2018. It wants to improve the quality of information and tacklesecurity issues, for example, fake accounts and spam. As many as 15% of all accounts on Twitter are said to be controlled by bots.

Twitter headquarters in San Francisco – Image: Runner1928

Words

account = agreement you have with an organisation so that you can use its services or website

ad = advertisement = pictures, text or a short film that persuades people to buy a product

announce = to say in public, officially

bot = computer programme that can control information on a website

celebrity = famous person

constantly = slowly, but all the time

currently = at the moment

due to = because of

especially = above all

expansion = when something increases in size

fail = here: not succeed in doing something

fake = not a real person

founding = when the company started

increase = grow, become larger

longer term = over a longer period of time

outlet = here: organization through which information is presented

overall = total; altogether

politician = person who works in the government, parliament or a political party

profit = the money you for selling things or doing business after your costs have been paid for

reported = it is said that …

revenue = money that a company gets in a certain time for selling products and services

rise – rose = to go up

security issues = problems in which the website is attacked by criminals and hackers

shares = part of a company that you can buy

spam = message that is sent to many different people by email or the Internet, usually as a way of advertising something

British Prime Minister Theresa May has appointed 42-year-old Tracey Crouch as the country’s first Minister for Loneliness. She will continue the work started by Jo Cox, a Labour Party MP who was shot by a right-wingextremist in 2016.

According to a commission headed by Cox, about 9 million Britons feel some form of loneliness. Half of all people aged 75 and over live alone – about 2 million across the UK. Many of them go on for days and even weeks without communicating or talking to anyone else.

However, not only the elderly feel lonely. A growing number of younger adults, especially those who use social media heavily, are in danger of becoming lonely.

Doctors claim that feeling lonely raises the likelihood of suffering a premature death. It is even worse than smoking. People who are isolated for a longer period of time often do not seek help. They eat and exercise less, which can lead to increased blood pressure and heart disease. Loneliness is also associated with dementia and depression.

In addition to the creation of a new government ministry, the statistics department has received the task of working out a way of measuring loneliness. Theresa May has pledged to raiseadditionalfunds to deal with the issue.

Millions of people in the UK feel lonely at some time or other – Image: Bert Kaufmann

Words

according to = as reported by …

additional = extra

appoint = to choose someone for a job or a government position

associated with = connected to

blood pressure = the force with which blood travels through your body

claim = to say that something is true even if you cannot prove it

dementia = illness that affects your brain and memory; it makes you unable to think clearly

department = organisation inside the government that deals with certain problems

depression = condition in which you feel sad and worried; you are often unable to lead a normal life

especially = above all

funds = money

head = lead

heart disease = when your heart gets weaker

heavily = here: a lot

however = but

in addition = also

increased = higher than nromal

isolated = away from other people

issue = problem

likelihood = how much something can be expected to happen

loneliness = the feeling of being alone

measure = calculate how much something is

MP = member of British parliament

pledge = promise

premature death = when you die too soon; before you have to

raise = go up

raise = here: organise more money

receive = get

right-wing extremist = person who has radical conservative opinions and is willing to do violent things to achieve them

Facebook has announced that it will release a new version of its popular app Messenger for children aged between 6 and 12. They do not need their own Facebook account to access the app, called Messenger Kids.

With Messenger Kids, parents will be able to control what their children see and who they are allowed to communicate with. There are no ads in the children’s version and Facebook has promised not to use a child’s information for other purposes. In addition, children’s names will not be integrated into Facebook’s search tool. At the moment, the app will only be available in the United States.

Facebook aims at getting children to become used to its product even if they are under the age required to get a normal account. As the company is losing younger customers to rivals Instagram and Snapchat, the company is trying to get young users to connect to their product before competitors do.

Messenger Kids will offer text and video chat as well as stickers and drawing tools. Special detection filtersprevent children from sharing sexual content or violence online.

According to Facebook, over 90% of all 8 to 12-year-olds have smartphones or tablets. Many use their parents’ Facebook account.The new app is intended to give children a feeling of having their own account, while parents are still incontrol.Messenger Kids will not automatically be converted into a normal Facebook account when children reach 13.

Children can now use a special Facebook app to contact their friends.

Words

access = use

according to = as said by …

account =a service that allows you to do or see things on the Internet

ad = picture, words or a short film which is intended to make people buy a product

aim = wants, plan to

available = here: use

announce = to say officially in public

communicate = talk, chat with or write to

competitor = rival

content = comments, pictures video etc..

convert = change into, automatically become

customer = person who buys something

detection filter = here: a tool that is used to stop bad things from getting seen by children

Short Message Service (SMS), also called texting, is celebrating its 25th birthday. The first text message was sent in Great Britain shortly before Christmas in 1992 in Great Britain. It was British engineer Neil Papworth who sent the first message from a computer to a mobile phone on the Vodaphone network. At that time mobile phones could only receive messages, not send them.

In 1994, Nokia presented its first mobile phone that could actually send and receive messages. It was the first phone that could produce more than an audio signal. Shortly afterwards the first commercial SMS service started in Finland. Text messages were limited to 160 characters.

25 years later text messaging is widelypopular. 97% of all smartphone users send some type of text message regularly. About 25 billion are sent every day. Today there are more complex messaging services like WhatsApp, Facebook Messanger and iMessage.

Media experts regard texting as the first step towards today’s smartphones, which are basically pocket computers with countless apps.

Texting has changed the way we communicate. For the first time, you could send the same text to different contacts at the same time andit didn’tmatter if the recipient was reachable or not. A new language has also emerged with abbreviations and short sentences.

Texting on a mobile phone – Image : Helar Lukats

Words

abbreviation = short form of a word or phrase

actually = really, in fact

basically = practically

celebrate = to show that an event is important

commercial = here: something that you can make money with

communicate = exchange information or get into contact with each other

complex = advanced; with many different parts

countless = very many

emerge = develop, appear

engineer = person who designs and builds machines and other objects

limit = only allow

network = here: system of telephone lines that are connected to each other

The social networking service Twitter has increased the number of characters that can be used for a single tweet to 280. The new limit will apply to English and other languages that use a Roman alphabet. Languages, such as Chinese, Japanese or Korean, are not affected by the change because users can say more with fewer characters.

Twitter says that the change has been made to give people more opportunity to say what they think and express their opinions without making texts shorter or using bad grammar. More space makes it easier to put your thoughts in writing.

Twitter decided to implement the change after a month of intensive testing .Those who tested the new character limit said it was good because they were able to express themselves in a better way.

In the first few days after the new rule took effect, many people used up the full 280 character limit. A spokesperson said that, after a few days, everything had become normal again. Only five percent of all tweets exceeded the old 140 character limit, probably because most users were used to it.

Twitter’s 140-character limit goes back to the days when the company was founded in 2006. Back then, the limit for sending SMS text messages was 140 characters and Twitter based the new service on that limit. Texting today is considered out of date and not used that much anymore.

Twitter logo

Words

affect = here: to do something that produces a change

apply = affect; to be used for

character = letter, number or sign used in an alphabet

considered = thought to be …

exceed = to be more than …

express = tell or show what you think or feel

found – founded = here: to start a new company

implement = here: to make changes

increase = to go up

intensive = here: a lot of

limit = here: the number of characters you are allowed to use

opinion = what you think about something

opportunity = chance

out of date = not useful, because something more modern has taken its place

Roman alphabet = alphabet used in English and other European languages

spokesperson = someone who speaks for a company and makes announcements in public